When God Says No
Luke 18: 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
One of the lies of the devil is that the heavens are brass. Yet sometimes we can be ardent in our prayers only to seemingly get no answer. The misguided lament then is often that we start to believe God either has not heard our prayers, or does not answer them. Neither is true however as we can always be assured that God hears our prayer and does answer them.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 2 Chronicles 7: 14-15
The problem is sometimes we do not like the answer. We live in a microwave society where only the answer "yes" is acceptable. Too often we do not go to God for guidance but to rubber stamp a decision we have already made. But God typically has three answers. Yes, no, or wait. Realize that when we refuse to accept "no" or "wait", that we essentially believe we know better than God.
Look at the life of Joseph. Sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph had to grow up fast, in a culture he did not understand. He had to learn a new language and acclimate to being a servant after being the favorite son of Jacob for his entire life. The Bible tells us that God was with Joseph and prospered him in the house of Potiphar. Sometimes we can read that and minimize what Joseph had to go through but this was still a 17 year old boy being forced to be a slave. Even though God prospered him, he remained a slave. The harder times however were ahead for Joseph as he would then spend over ten years in prison for being falsely accused. In fact, Joseph refused the advances of Potiphar's wife by correctly claiming he could not go against God! Despite doing the right thing, there was Joseph in prison. Once again, the Bible says that God was with Joseph and that he prospered while in prison. That still does not change his circumstances. He still was in prison and prison back then did not come with a basic cable package!
Even though the Bible does not show us Joseph's prayer life, we know he was close to God and that his closeness deepened the longer he stayed in prison. Surely he must have prayed every night for God to deliver him from that cell. Every night, for over ten years. The answer from God was "wait." It is in our darkest hour that we either turn away from God or turn toward Him. Joseph turned toward him. I am sure the answer of wait must have seemed like a "no." Ten years for something he didn't even do and we can get upset of we feel our prayer is not answered by the end of the week!
Why did God make Joseph wait? Was it some form of cruelty? Not according to the Bible:
